Head to Head Review: Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) vs. Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BDTX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.0% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 10.3% of Iovance Biotherapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of Black Diamond Therapeutics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Black Diamond Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iovance Biotherapeutics	$164.07 million	6.75	-$372.18 million	($1.20)	-2.33
Black Diamond Therapeutics	N/A	N/A	-$69.68 million	$0.36	6.92

Black Diamond Therapeutics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Iovance Biotherapeutics. Iovance Biotherapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Black Diamond Therapeutics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Iovance Biotherapeutics and Black Diamond Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iovance Biotherapeutics	-158.78%	-55.24%	-43.11%
Black Diamond Therapeutics	N/A	17.78%	13.80%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Iovance Biotherapeutics and Black Diamond Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iovance Biotherapeutics	2	7	6	0	2.27
Black Diamond Therapeutics	1	2	4	1	2.63

Iovance Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $11.10, indicating a potential upside of 297.85%. Black Diamond Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 281.53%. Given Iovance Biotherapeutics’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Iovance Biotherapeutics is more favorable than Black Diamond Therapeutics.

Volatility and Risk

Iovance Biotherapeutics has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Black Diamond Therapeutics has a beta of 3.33, meaning that its share price is 233% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Black Diamond Therapeutics beats Iovance Biotherapeutics on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It also develops lifileucel in combination with pembrolizumab to treat frontline advanced melanoma patients; LN-145 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solid tumor cancers; IOV-4001, which is in Phase 1/2 IOV-GM1-201 clinical trial, for the treatment of NSCLC; and lifileucel for gynecological cancers. The company has collaborations and licensing agreements with WuXi Advanced Therapies, Inc.; National Institutes of Health; the National Cancer Institute; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center; The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Cellectis S.A.; Novartis Pharma AG; and Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals GmbH. The company was formerly known as Lion Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. in June 2017. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Carlos, California.

About Black Diamond Therapeutics

Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage oncology medicine company, focuses on the discovery and development of MasterKey therapies for patients with genetically defined tumors. The company's lead product candidate is BDTX-1535, a brain-penetrant epidermal growth factor receptor MasterKey inhibitor, which is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor mutant non-small cell lung cancer, as well as phase 1 clinical trial to treat glioblastoma. It is also developing BDTX-4933, a brain-penetrant RAF MasterKey inhibitor targeting KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF alterations in solid tumors that is in phase 1 clinical trial. In addition, the company is developing BDTX-4876, a MasterKey inhibitor of oncogenic FGFR2/3 mutations with selectivity versus FGFR1/4, which is in preclinical stage. The company was formerly known as ASET Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. in January 2018. Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.